[2]The smile splashed across Greg Oden’s face Wednesday night revealed the joy, the relief, the sense of achievement of playing in his first NBA game in nearly four years.

As first steps go, this was a rousing success.

“Four minutes, it’s enough for me,” Oden said after playing exactly one second less than that in a second-quarter appearance during the Heat’s preseason victory at New Orleans Arena. “As long as I got out there and I walked off the court and I’m healthy, that’s all that matters.”

Oden’s cameo, after years of struggling with knee injuries, was both encouraging and eventful.

There was an emphatic dunk, off a nifty pass from Chris Bosh, on his only shot from the field. There were two rebounds, an emphatic blocked shot and another shot deterred.